Bruce Jones (1) (1944–)

The first half of this book is actually not in continuity; it's another origin for the Scarecrow, but Robin's there, and Batman met Scarecrow a few years before Robin. Don't let this fool you, though-- it's very good. Bruce Jones writes a good story, with plenty of creepy turns, and the interplay between Batman and Robin is very fun without being corny. The real star of the story, though, is Mark Sable's angular artwork, which perfectly suits the story, and is well complemented by Lee show more Loughridge's inimitable colors. A really good Batman tale on the whole.

Two-Face: Year One, on the other hand, contorts to fit into continuity, and is the worse for it. Chapter one tries to stay consistent with the events of The Long Halloween (it's like a prologue, about the beginning of Harvey's descent), but misses the point in the characterization. The second chapter is just dumb... Two-Face runs for office, and I don't really get why or how, it's just implausibly goofy. Two-Face is a tricky villain that I've almost never seen done right: given his reasons for turning "bad," why would he just become another gangster? The whole point of him was that he hated and was scarred by organized crime!

Batman "Year One" Stories: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence » show less

After plowing through a long string of stinkers from Marvel and DC, I finally found a decent one. And to my surprise it's from Marvel, which I generally consider to be the inferior of the two.

How did they do it? Mainly by giving up the tired old cliches, of course. The writing style is very sparse; there are whole pages with no dialog at all. What dialog there is, is actually handled surprisingly well. It's not aimed at the usual 9-year-old level, but more at the late teens.

Rather than the show more usual over-explaining (so many comic books seem to be written with the assumption that the readers are morons), there's a nice sense of mystery; you actually have to think a little while reading, which is a remarkably refreshing change from the usual Marvel fare.

The art is different from the usual style, too. There's a touch of manga to it, I think; it works, though.

As for the plot, it's based on Banner-as-fugitive with a fairly interesting admixture of mysterious super-agents and an X-Files-like quality.

The Hulk himself is extremely well-handled; he's seen only fleetingly, no dialog, with a sense of sheer size that's truly impressive. Kudos to the artist; the Hulk reminded me of Godzilla more than anything else, simply in terms of size, power, and danger.

Unfortunately the book leaves off without any sort of resolution. It also gets into an area that could potentially be a problem in the long run; the organization behind the agents chasing the Hulk can apparently bring back the dead with ease, which could deprive the series of a lot of threat potential down the road. If death becomes virtually meaningless, a major motivator has been lost!

This book left me wondering that the hell had happened. How did Marvel end up greenlighting this? Was it their main Hulk book? That seems inconceivable. Perhaps it was a mini-series? That seems more plausible. If this was a regular series (and I had the cash to spare), I'd definitely consider subscribing. Not that I was ever a huge fan of the Hulk, but I DO like decent writing and art.

I'd call this a strong 3.5, and if I liked the character more or if it hadn't ended on a cliffhanger, it could easily have been a 4. show less

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Mr. Jones kept me guessing through the entire book. Whose the good guy? Whose the bad guy? I didn't know for sure until about the last 10 pages of the book! And the twists and turns through the book, especially the surprises at the end. Amazing! I would highly recommend this book to anybody who likes suspense.

The end twist is chilling and very memorable (though they'd lately retcon and de-fang it), but otherwise this storyline is just OK. The Joker is not at all threatening, the Black Mask goes from being scary and creepy early on to simply seeming foolish and unhinged, and nowhere near enough sense of dread is made by the notion that some unknown villain seems to know Batman's identity. There is also not enough actual investigation going on for a story where Batman himself claims to enjoy show more getting back to detective work.

All that said, when boiled down to its core, the story has many good beats to it, the artwork's decent, and getting an emotional payoff and resolution to the death of Stephanie Brown is greatly appreciated. show less